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Erie Air Fair offers plenty of plane ol' fun

By Kimberli Turner

For Hometown Weekly

Posted:
08/07/2014 08:50:04 AM MDT

Updated:
08/08/2014 07:30:40 PM MDT

Kids tried to beat the heat at last year's Erie Air Far by sitting in the shade of a World War II era 'Warbird.' The fair returns to Erie Municipal Airport on Saturday, Aug. 9. (Erin Mettee-McCutchon / Courtesy photo)

If you go

What: Erie Air Fair, featuring a static (grounded) air display; car show; helicopter rides for purchase; a children's Adventure Zone; experts from Ball Aerospace, Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum and the Experimental Aircraft Association; food trucks; vendors; and local business exhibits.

Erie need look no further than its own backyard for an exciting fourth annual air fair — but event-goers, don't look up, everything will be nearly at eye level on Saturday.

The Erie Air Fair will offer a static (grounded) air display from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 9, at the Erie Municipal Airport, 395 Airport Road. The event is sponsored by nonprofit Erie Air Fair, Inc., with five board members and a planning committee of 10.

"We'll have about 20 antique aircrafts and they'll have a contest on those aircrafts," said Erin Mettee-McCutchon, an event organizer. "Some of the planes will be open for the kids to get in and take photos. Most of the planes are privately owned, so they're coming from private hangars around Colorado and a couple from outside of Colorado."

Three of the planes hail from Erie. Among the planes will be a World War I replica aircraft and World War II fighter and trainer jets and a Cozy MKIII home-built aircraft.

The Erie Air Fair will offer activities for all ages all over the airport grounds. There will be a car show with newer, high-end cars — including a Colorado State Patrol car that kids can sit inside and explore and a Ferrari — helicopter rides for purchase, a children's Adventure Zone, food trucks, vendors and local business exhibits.

The Adventure Zone will have the usual inflatables for kids to bounce on and a giant Zorb ball for them to climb inside and roll around, stations to assemble airplanes made of balsa wood or candy, but there will also be a fun, educational component as well.

Experts from Ball Aerospace, Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum and the Experimental Aircraft Association will be on hand with flight apparatuses and simulators and to answer aviation and spacecraft questions.

There will be music all day featuring musicians from Globalsound Music Academy; Banned in Japan, a variety dance band that plays cover music from the 1980s, '90s and early 2000s; and the day will conclude with headliner Buckstein, of Denver.

For those who need to wet their whistle, a beer and wine garden will be available with Avery Brewing Company's White Rascal and IPA on tap, and an award-winning cider from Erie's local brewery The Old Mine.

There will be lots of things to see and do and organizers anticipate quite a crowd.

"Last year we estimated 3,500 to 4,000. We were expecting maybe 2,500, 3,000 and we got so many more people. We were amazed. It made all of us on the committee so proud," McCutchon said. "That's a huge amount for a local, nonprofit event."

The nonprofit raises money for all sorts of aviation-related scholarships for kids. For example, last year Erie Air Fair Inc. helped a 16-year-old girl pay for her pilot's license, so she could attempt to make the Guinness book of World Records for the most touch-and-go landings — she's still working toward that record, McCutchon said.

It's important to board and committee members to get the kids excited about aviation and experience flight at an early age, and encourage kids to later on incorporate STEM education — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — should they pursue the field.

"We offer an interesting, fun, free event that can bring everyone in the Front Range together for music, for aviation, cars, the Adventure Zone for kids. That inspires children's interest in aviation," McCutchon said. "It is absolutely a family event. We do try to focus a little bit on the kids. We want to make sure if the kids are interested in aviation or being a pilot, we show them everything they want to see."

Board member Jan Deluise said she loves seeing children get interested in aviation, and that's one of the main reasons the nonprofit hosts the event. She said it has been a huge part of her family's life, and she and husband, Scott, have lived on the Erie Air Park for five years.

"My husband is a pilot and my son is a pilot. We own our own airplane and we do a lot of flying," she said. "It's a lifestyle, like living on a golf course or living with horses. We live with our airplanes."

While Jan and Scott Deluise won't bring their experimental propjet Saturday — a Beechcraft Baron piston airplane converted into a single-engine propjet that flies higher and faster and burns jet fuel — they both look forward to another year walking the airport grounds and seeing the aircraft.

"As pilots, we always like to see (the planes) up close. We see them in the sky, but we like to touch and taste and feel and see them. We get to see airplanes we may or may not have seen before," Scott Deluise said. "I like air fairs because it showcases the airport. Most people don't even know Erie has an airport. The key is to educating the public."

There will be free parking available near the airport and free shuttles will run back and forth all day from the event to the lots.

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